Domestic violence and the media

Day after day, the various channels churn
out serials with doses of violence against women. While some portray subtle
cases of abuse and violence, some others are alarmingly loud

Day after day, the various
channels churn out serials with doses of violence against women. While some
portray subtle cases of abuse and violence, some others are alarmingly loud.

The International Women`s Day on
the 8th of March and the Protection from Domestic Violence Bill, 2001 has been
able to garner the much-needed attention on domestic violence.

In this context, I would like to
emphasise the role of media, especially the television media in spreading
domestic violence, albeit unknowingly. It is now well acknowledged that the
reach of television media in the country is enormous. Day after day, the
various channels churn out serials with doses of violence against women. While
some portray subtle cases of abuse and violence against women, some others are alarmingly
loud. Popular serials that command high viewership, at one point or the other,
depict women as being falsely implicated by the members of the family and being
sent away to mental asylum.

Mental illness and amnesia are the
main two tools available with television content makers to inflict women with.
When a woman starts to assert herself, she finds herself branded as a mentally
unstable person. Poignant cases of such portrayal were `Vazhkai` and `Kaveri`,
(Sun TV), both currently off air. The protagonist of Kaveri, who takes the same
name, enacted by Madhu of Roja fame finds herself lodged in the mental hospital
when she tries to raise her voice against the miscreants who want to dislodge
her and her family from the house they shared some of the beautiful moments of
life. A principal character in Vazhkai also meets with the same fate. The ever
affable and loving bahu of `Kyunki Saans Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi`, Tulsi finds
herself in the thick of events and succumbs to amnesia.

If ratings are any indication of
popularity, audiences should do rethinking on the kind of stuff that is being
made popular. The immensely popular `Kyunki…` witnessed one of the most
dramatic resurrections of any character in modern times! The dead character in
Mihir had a rebirth, owing to popular demand.

One popular serial, currently on
air in a popular vernacular channel during prime time shows women being
violated at varying degrees, physical, mental and sexual by the protagonist.
The hero is depicted as taking revenge on the women of a family, which was
responsible for abusing him as a child (Aaligal, Sun TV, 9 pm, Monday through
Friday). The serial though well made, such depiction can prove to be highly
dangerous, when it is available to thousands of audiences who are illiterate through
the television, at almost no cost at all.

Such is the amount of following that it should not come as a
surprise to find women themselves approving of such male characters. One
educated female friend once remarked that it would be acceptable to her if her
husband beat her up once in a while. Her reasoning was that husbands would beat
up wives only if they were strongly possessive of them, which was an indication
of their love and

The new term for self censorship is voluntary censorship, as proposed by companies like Netflix and Hotstar. ET reports that streaming video service Amazon Prime is opposing a move by its peers to adopt a voluntary censorship code in anticipation of the Indian government coming up with its own rules. Amazon is resisting because it fears that it may alienate paying subscribers.

Clearly, the run to the 2019 elections is on. A journalist received a call from someone saying they were from Aajtak channel and were conducting a survey, asking whom she was going to vote for in 2019. On being told that her vote was secret, the caller assumed she wasn't going to vote for 'Modiji'. The caller, a woman, also didn't identify herself. A month or two earlier the same journalist received a call, this time from a man, asking if she was going to vote for the BSP.